The tenth arc—Heavenly Bell Rings in the Nine Heavens—ended here.
This was a fairly short, straightforward arc: Shi Tiexin fulfilled all his wishes and completed Burning Core Breakthrough.
At this point, it was precisely the tenth arc of Era of Mist, and the book's first act was complete. If translated into Transcendent Twins, it was equivalent to the point where the Corpse King arc ended. Coincidentally, both had written about inner demons.
I reflected on it myself. Compared with Transcendent Twins, Era of Mist handled the issue of inner demons differently.
When I wrote Transcendent Twins, I was in my twenties, and my understanding of inner demons was emotion. Only emotion made people suffer; only emotion made people lose their way; only emotion could make people fall into an endless hell, where life was worse than death and no release could be found. Beyond love and affection, there were few attachments.
When I wrote Era of Mist, I was already in my thirties. At thirty, one stands firm; my abilities had grown stronger, and so had my responsibilities. I had a wife and children, and there were more things beyond myself to consider. I had seen more, experienced more, reflected more, and my understanding of inner demons had changed as well.
I wondered: when did a person truly grow up? What counted as maturity? What was the greatest bewilderment in a person's life? What kind of realization could let someone live without fear or regret?
At that moment, even I suddenly gained a deeper understanding of the four holy-light mantras from Transcendent Twins.
I suddenly realized that the four lines I had written back then actually built upon one another, explaining four levels of heroic spirit and four kinds of blessings. I had been muddleheaded even while writing them, and